Nolans Solicitors acting for British Credit Trust

freuchiehunt

I have an HP agreement for a car financed by British Credit Trust mid 2004. To cut a long story short, from day one, I had serious problems with the car - £1,400 bill for repairs four months after buying the car and then series of faults as I realised that the car had never been properly maintained. The car's had just about every part replaced, including the engine. Don't feel I can hand it back either because of all the faults. Dealer complaint got nowhere. BCT didn't want to accept any responsibility and all of the repair bills led me to difficulties with payments. After decree enforced, I began making payments to Nolans Solicitors. Nolans have been a nightmare to deal with. Constant requests for statements of payments were ignored. Last year I sent them a SAR request for all paperwork, including the original agreement. They didn't send me full statements so I followed this up. The statements show that I had paid £8477.39 and charges applied amounted to £2213. Since the SAR I have paid another £800 so total paid stands at £9277.39. Also, statements suggested that Nolans were delaying passing payments to BCT which was leading to late payment surcharges being applied. I stopped payments again in December and was about to write to dispute charges as I am sick of paying and paying and never knowing when this will end. I received a letter from Nolans with a notice of charging order for £2991.18. A few days later and a charge for payment through my door from the Sheriff Officers for an amount of £1372.16 and stating that my payments to account to date were £5900. You can guess my reaction, where is the other £3500 that I have paid and how come the figures demanded are different from Nolans letter. So, I phoned the Sheriff Officers and explained that I was in dispute. Sent a letter of complaint to Nolans stating that I was complaining about breach of OFT guidance on debt collection and low and behold another charge for payment through the door now saying I have only paid £4600 and demaning £2676.64. Sheriff Officers say they can do nothing about this although they sympathise. So, I am looking for advice please. I am going to re-start payments to Nolans to hold off the bailiffs but am planning to take a complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman. Nolans haven't replied to my complaint letter. How can they get away with changing the figures and submitting misleading and totally inaccurate information to a court? I think they are trying to hide the level of charges applied by saying I have paid less than I actually have. I'm totally disgusted but angry enough to fight this and not let it drop. Any advice about my approach would be greatly appreciated.